Decisions and The Way of Wisdom or Foolishness

The previous is a simplistic yet helpful visual of putting the decision making pieces together into something useful/practical. We noted that the items in the middle (prayer, the Bible, convictions, the Spirit) are always at work and necessary during the whole process. Students noted that some of these steps don’t happen in a nice sequence, some are happening in parallel and some require back and forth between steps before the final decision and moving forward with that decision. Also, some decisions require an evaluation (or check in) after moving ahead that might require another round of the decision making process to make adjustments or change course all together. This really was a lot of fun to hear from them through this!

Last, what we ended up with was then “tested” through actual examples that were in front of two students. They had an important decision in front of them to make. Two students are in a season of life where they will start receiving income from a job and this presents an important decision in front of them, “what should I do with all this money that will be coming to me soon?”. What a great question to ask and a great application to use the wisdom of God to answer that question! So what we did for these two students was to pair up to come up with options which in effect was soliciting “input from others”, the whole group! What also came with the discussions in pairs were some points about circumstances such as the fact that they had limited income, and that they had expenses and savings goals. And of course, pros/cons found their way in there naturally too without having to go as far as putting all options side by side and going through a pros/cons exercise. The options shared were endless to say the least (some wise and some foolish!), with the wise themes of giving, savings, expenses, and spending emerging in various forms. I’d expect this, as practical Biblical financial guidance from various sources promote similar categories. This gave the two students, and all of us really, a good evaluation of how we are stewarding our finances and what decisions we might make to align to God’s wisdom from Proverbs.

The end goal of all this: students engaging in God’s word for truth and practical guidance that intersects their lives today in their decision making. It was a joy to do this with them. How about for you? How might you use Proverbs as an investment of wisdom into the lives of young people, especially around decision making? As with the definition/purpose of a Proverb, the best chance you have to direct them in the way of the wise is using God’s word and doing what it says in both your instruction and your life example. So have at it with God’s provision noted (prayer, Bible, the Spirit, one another) and do so using creative exercises and discussions together, journeying together in the process of decision making, to the glory of God!

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

    fools despise wisdom and instruction.” - Proverbs 1:7